A Sample of My Writings

Red Shoes

Excerpt from Black and Kiddo: A True Story of Dust, Determination, and Cowboy Dreams

[“Red Shoes” won first place awards at Oklahoma Writers Federation, Inc. (OWFI) and Ozarks Creative Writers (OCW) conferences.]

Growing good food is what my father did best. He didn’t own any land of his own, but he leased or sharecropped whatever he could get hold of and coaxed it into giving up bright red tomatoes or luscious ripe watermelons or the sweetest sweet...

Balancing Buzzards

[“Balancing Buzzards” won third place in the national Susan Wittig Albert LifeWriting Competition.]

I’ve never cared for turkey buzzards. I cringe and look away when I see them munching roadkill on the highway, their naked red heads exposed to the world. My husband says the consummate scavengers have a job to do and should...

Toad's Song

[“Toad’s Song” was published in Echoes of the Ozarks, Vol. VII and also won a first place award at Ozarks Writers League’s annual writing contest.]

Susan sat at her stainless steel breakfast table, watching morning spread across the wide expanse of the farm. Her view was framed by the six-foot triple window squarely in front of her. Two cups of coffee were getting cold. Olive Kitteridge, the book...